I have a hernia do you think this could affect my accpetence into the guard?

March 20th, 2013, 02:16 PM

It doesnt bother me unless I do squats with a fairly heavy weight for myself. Even then its not really painful more like uncomfortable like I got some gas with a little tenderness. I workout, run, ect.. still do some squats just not as many/often as I would like to.

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Re: I have a hernia do you think this could affect my accpetence into the guard?

Philipee, see AR 40-501.

Section 2-3. Abdominal organs and gastrointestinal system

h. Abdominal wall.
(1) Current hernia, including, but not limited to uncorrected inguinal (550) and other abdominal wall hernias (553),
do not meet the standard.

As an aside, I had two hernias (surgically repaired) and ran into no problems at MEPS. Chaplain4me is correct, you will "cough" at MEPS. Get them fixed and you should be good to go. Also, keep in mind that hernias can be dangerous. If a portion of your intestines were to slip through the hernia, resulting in a lack of blood flow to the intestine, you could be facing emergency surgery. At least that was my doctor's explantion why I had to have surgery the day after one of them was discovered.

Does having a hernia surgery affect you prior to joining? Is there a time frame after the surgery is performed you have to wait before you join?

There is no written rule, but MEPS doctors typically won't give a Med Read and/or approve an applicant for at least 6 months after a surgical procedure like that. I ran into something similar, but it only required a Med Read to show it was corrected and didn't require a waiver. You have to at least get the Med Read done before they can even project you back to MEPS to be screened.

Can you explain more about the Med Read... how do I go about doing that?

If you have had something that pops up in AR 40-501 as disqualifying (like a hernia), they have to have something to show that you've had that corrected or fixed in order to clear you. This typically means some records from your doctor or surgeon and some type of letter stating they've evaluated you after the recommended recovery period and you have no physical limitations as a result.

Your recruiter then pushes those documents to MEPS who will do a Med Read of your packet (can take a while), but once they've done that then MEPS will allow your recruiter to project you back to MEPS for the normal doctor screening and sign-up process.